Tracking vs clicking aim, and how they differ

There are two kinds of aim, and knowing which one you’re missing with changes how you practice. Tracking keeps the crosshair on a target that keeps moving, for as long as you fire. Clicking moves the crosshair to a target, stops, and fires one shot. Tracking is a follow. Clicking is a move and a stop. They feel close because both use the same mouse and the same sensitivity, but they miss in different ways and they are practiced differently.

I play Zarya at Master (peak Master 1), 50–60 percent accuracy, 1200 DPI, in-game 3.5, FOV 103, on a Logitech PRO 2 LIGHTSPEED, left-handed. Blizzard’s Zarya page names the Particle Cannon a short-range linear beam and an energy grenade launcher. The beam is a hold. That is tracking. The grenade is one press. That is a click. Aim training still says to pick one pattern per block. Here’s how to tell which one a fight needs, and what each miss looks like. The fast move inside clicking has its own page: a flick. More in Guides.

Which one the match asks for

Tracking keeps the crosshair on a target that keeps moving while you fire. Clicking puts it on a target, stops, and fires once. The weapon you use most decides which one the match asks for.

The weapon you use mostNot sure yetKeeps firing while heldOne shot per pressWhat you practicedNothing yetA moving targetStill targetsHow you missNot sure yetBehind or past a moving targetPast or short after one fast moveThe crosshair shakes

What this means

Check the trigger

Hold the fire button on the weapon you use most. If it keeps firing, the match asks for tracking. If each press is one shot, it asks for clicking.

Check the trigger

The cleanest test is the weapon you use most. In the range, hold the fire button. If it keeps firing, the damage arrives over time and the crosshair has to stay on the target the whole time. That is tracking. If each press is one shot, the damage arrives at the moment of the click and the crosshair only has to be right at that moment. That is clicking.

Blizzard writes Zarya’s gun as two sentences: a linear beam, and a grenade. I hold the beam in most fights. The grenade is the other press, for a group or someone the beam cannot stay on. Use the one you actually hold, not the one you like in the menu. If you swap between both every round, practice the one you missed with last session, and leave the other for the next block.

Official product pages for those games describe tap and spray weapons. The test is still the trigger. Hold it. Count the shots.

What tracking is

Tracking starts with the crosshair on a target, or after a short catch onto it. Then the target moves and the crosshair moves with it. Nothing stops. The skill is matching speed and direction while the target strafes, jumps, or turns around.

Aimlabs’ basics article, splits tracking into precise and reactive. Precise tracking is the small, calm correction while someone walks a line you can read. Reactive tracking is the same follow when they change their mind. Those are two speeds of one job. They are not two sensitivities.

Aimlabs’ glossary calls the common miss trailing: the crosshair sits behind the target and never quite catches up. That usually means the eye is on the crosshair and the arm only moves after the target already has. Watch the target. Let the arm follow what the eye is watching. The 50–60 percent band I will name on Zarya is what that follow looks like in a log, not a trainer rank.

The other tracking miss is running past a change of direction. The target turns, and the crosshair keeps going. Take the same strafe slowly once. If a calm follow also carries you past, the in-game number is too fast for that speed. If only the fast change carries you past, the follow is the skill, and the reps are the fix. Don’t add a second DPI step to hide that.

A beam still needs a catch. Zarya’s Particle Cannon does not start on the person who walked in from the edge. The first move onto them is a short flick. Then the follow takes over. If the follow is good and only the catch misses, start each rep off the target, land the catch, then stay. The block is still tracking.

Prediction is the habit the reactive half punishes. Aimlabs’ glossary treats prediction as guessing the next strafe, and reading as watching the one that is happening. On a bot that always jukes, a guess puts you on the empty side. Match what they are doing. The Overwatch range already strafes.

What clicking is

Clicking starts with the crosshair somewhere else. The move goes to the target, the crosshair stops on it, and the click fires one shot. A small correction counts. So does a long, fast throw, which is the flick. The skill is the stop.

Aimlabs treats flicking as the fast move onto a target, and clicking as the deliberate shot, often on a one-press weapon. Those two words belong on the same side. What a flick is is the throw, the stop, and the click. Here’s how that stop differs from a follow.

Aimlabs splits flicking into static and dynamic. Static is a still target. Dynamic is a target that is already moving. The stop is the same job. The throw has to land where the target will be if it is moving. Learn the stop on still bots in the range of the game you queue, then add motion.

The common clicking miss is the stop landing past the target or short of it. Read where it stopped, not whether the shot hit. A click while the crosshair is still moving lands wherever the move happened to be, so let it stop first. Aimlabs calls that timing click timing. The words are theirs. The habit is the same.

Chasing is the habit that crosses over badly. A player who tracks a lot will sometimes follow a target with a one-shot weapon, firing on the way. With clicking you do not have to stay on them. Catch up, stop, click. Zarya’s grenade is that press. I still want the stop. I do not spray the orb while the crosshair is sliding.

A second small correction after the stop is normal. Aimlabs calls it a micro-correction. One of those is how a real click finishes. Three of them is a guess you are walking onto the head. Practice the first stop until that walk gets shorter.

Switching, the third word

The competitor pages do not stop at two. Aimlabs’ basics article and glossary name switching as the third category: leave one target, acquire the next. Static switching is still bots. Dynamic switching is moving bots. Voltaic’s published aim journey, which Aimlabs itself points at, treats switching as a short acquire plus a short follow, then the next body.

On Zarya the switch is often the person who walked into the beam after the first one died, or the second body the grenade was meant for. It is still a flick at the catch. It is still a follow if I hold the beam. It is not a new sensitivity, and it is not a reason to open a second trainer.

A long path between two targets is a placement miss first. Crosshair placement is where the crosshair sat before anyone appeared. A switch from the floor is a rescue. A switch from a placed crosshair is a short throw. Practice the short one.

Where they meet

Tracking often starts with a catch. The target appears off the crosshair, a short move puts the crosshair on them, then the follow takes over. That catch is a small flick. The block is still tracking.

Clicking often has a small follow. A target strafing slowly may need the crosshair to move a little before the stop. That is still clicking, because the shot fires at the stop.

A shaking crosshair is the same problem in both. It is usually a pinch in the hand, not the sensitivity. Loosen the grip until a shake would slip the mouse, then only enough that it stays. How to stop tensing is that loosen. Do not lower 3.5 to hide a death-grip.

Recoil is not tracking, and it is not a flick. If the gun climbs after the click, that is a second move. How recoil control works is that page. Zarya’s beam does not climb like a rifle. Do not borrow a spray drill for a beam.

Projectile travel is the other mix-up. Aimlabs’ glossary calls leading the aim-ahead you need when a shot has flight time. Zarya’s grenade is that shot. The beam is not. Do not lead a hitscan beam. Do not treat an orb as a track.

How to practice each

Use the range of the game you queue, on the sensitivity you play. For tracking, pick one target that strafes and stay on it while you hold fire. Watch where the crosshair drifts off. For clicking, put a still target off the crosshair, move to it, stop, then click. Watch the stop.

One pattern per block. Two patterns in one short block means neither gets enough reps to change anything. If the match asks for both, alternate the block from session to session, and let the last match decide which one is next. Best aim training still says ten to twenty minutes, then queue.

Aimlabs’ playlist article wants clicking, tracking, and switching represented across a routine, and two or three runs of one task before you jump. That is still one pattern on the screen at a time. A montage of ten scenarios is how Monday’s beam feels foreign.

A trainer is for a motion the game cannot repeat. Aimlabs is free on Steam (app 714010, Statespace). KovaaK’s is $9.99 on Steam (app 824270). Pick a tracking scenario for a tracking miss and a clicking scenario for a clicking miss. Do not open both. Do not raise the sensitivity inside the trainer to make one pattern feel easier. The Overwatch range is enough to see whether the beam sticks.

Keep one line after the block: the pattern, the miss you saw, and whether the same miss showed up in the match. Falling behind in the range and stopping short in the match means the block practiced the wrong pattern. Change the pattern next time, not the number.

The pair you play on

It does not change the sensitivity. The match uses one number for every shot. A setting that tracks well and clicks badly is still the one you play. Run the calm test before you blame it.

I leave the PRO 2 at 1200 DPI and Overwatch at 3.5. How to find your sensitivity is the swipe test: lower the in-game number if you fly past, raise it if you have to lift. I do not keep a tracking profile and a clicking profile. I do not change G HUB in the middle of a block.

If I open another game, I do not paste 3.5. I match the centimeters for a full turn. That is what /tools is for: a sensitivity converter, a cm/360 calculator, and eDPI, all in the browser. Aimlabs’ glossary uses the same cm/360 language. DPI times the slider is a speed inside one game. The hand is the centimeters.

FOV 103 is the Overwatch slider I play on, on a 1080p 240 Hz panel. Aimlabs notes that a higher field of view shows more world and can make a target look smaller. A full turn back to the same mark is still a full turn. Measure the mouse on the pad. Do not match someone else’s FOV digits and call that the same sensitivity.

Mouse DPI is the count the sensor already sends. Acceleration is the checkbox that makes a fast swipe travel farther than a slow swipe of the same length. Turn Enhance pointer precision off before you trust either pattern. The PRO 2 is LIGHTSPEED. I am not fighting a cable on that mouse. The Naga is the WoW mouse. I do not track a beam on it.

What the difference does not change

It does not make one better than the other. The better pattern is the one your weapon asks for. A great tracker with a one-shot weapon still loses the fight if they chase instead of stopping. A great clicker with a beam still loses the fight if they tap and let go.

It does not replace placement. A crosshair already at head height on the path makes both patterns shorter. Tracking starts closer, and the click needs a smaller move. A long rescue from the floor is a night of the wrong practice.

It does not replace the hero. The Zarya guide is bubbles, energy, and who you watch. Accuracy in the 50–60 percent band is the whole of the gun.

It does not need a new mouse. A shape you can hold for a season matters more than a sensor sticker. I already own the PRO 2. Best gaming mouse is that shape page. A new shell will not add 5 percent to a log I did not measure in a lab.

Wrist versus arm is the split the other aim pages love. A short stop is often a wrist. A wide follow is often the forearm. If a distance makes me lift every time, the pad or the number is short. If a distance makes my shoulder hike, the throw is too big for how I am sitting.

A block you can repeat

1. Same DPI. Mine is 1200. Same in-game number. Mine is 3.5. Same FOV. Mine is 103.
2. Enhance pointer precision off.
3. Hold the fire button on the weapon you use most. That pick is the pattern.
4. One target. Tracking: stay on a strafe while you hold. Clicking: throw, stop, look, click.
5. Ten quiet minutes. Read the miss, not the hit count.
6. Queue. If the first fights feel worse, the pattern was wrong, not the night.

That is enough. A second block on a second day beats a one-hour mash of both patterns.

If you only remember one line: practice the pattern the trigger asks for, on the number you already play. The beam wants a track. The click wants a stop. More in Guides.

Common questions

What is the difference between tracking and clicking aim?

Tracking keeps your crosshair on a moving target while you fire. Clicking (flicking) snaps your crosshair to a target, stops, and fires one shot.

Should I practice tracking or flicking?

Whichever your main hero or weapon needs. Beam and automatic weapons need tracking, while snipers and single-shot weapons need flicking.

Do tracking and flicking need different sensitivities?

No. Practice both on the sensitivity you play with, since you can't switch mid-match.

Why does my crosshair fall behind moving targets?

Usually you're reacting to where the target was instead of watching where it's going. Keep your eyes on the target, not your crosshair.